


Meeting in Odd Places

by H14M



Category: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
Genre: Abigail is underrated, Abigail meets someone new, Gen, Great Ormond Street Hospital, this is very unedited sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:41:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23666293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/H14M/pseuds/H14M
Summary: When visiting her brother Abigail meets an intriguing person wondering the hospital and they strike up a conversation
Comments: 1
Kudos: 19





	Meeting in Odd Places

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fic I've written in years so sorry if its bad.

Abigail had been trying to find a glass of water when she first noticed her. Dressed in dark blue jeans, a faded red hoody and black adidas trainers with a brown leather messenger bag slung over one shoulder she looked like a fairly average white teenager. Abigail couldn’t exactly explain what had made the stranger catch her attention maybe it was that the nurses didn’t seem to notice her presence or that the faint vestigium of laughter and happiness seemed to surround her.

The stranger sat down on a wheelchair that was parked in the corridor so Abigail walked over to her and rested on the wall next to the wheelchair. The stranger regarded Abigail carefully. “I didn’t know the Issacs came in here.”  
Abigail was slightly taken aback, but she chuckled, “You can sense that about me?” The stranger must be a member of the demi-monde thought Abigail. It was the strangers’ turn to chuckle, “You reek of magic mate. Didn’t know they recruited so young though.”  
“Call it special circumstances.” Abigail replied not wanting to explain until she had worked out who on earth she was talking to. “Who are you?” she asked.  
“The nurses mostly call me kiddo or trouble. Had a friend who called me Ossy once,” A teary-eyed woman walked past and the stranger apparently called Ossy stopped until she had passed and then continued, “Mostly I just let them call me whatever they want. What do you want me to call you?”  
“Call me Abigail.” Abigail replied. She looked at Ossy again, more carefully then before, her eyes had the glint of a child who knows that they’re up to no good and Abigail felt hopeful, maybe her brother will recover, maybe mum and dad will be home more.  
“Stop that.” She said sharply.  
Ossy sounded concerned, “Stop what?”  
“That feeling of hope, it must be you.”  
Ossy dipped her head, “Sorry. I forgot that I can have that effect on some people.”  
The feeling subsided and Abigail looked Ossy straight in the eye and asked again, “Who are you?”  
Ossy maintained the eye contact, a feat that many people, Abigail’s teachers particularly, cannot achieve, “Exactly?” asked Ossy. Abigail nodded. Ossy broke the eye contact and said, “Your lot probably have some category for me but to be I am the children’s friend, we play games, we go on adventures and we have fun. When I’m around the parents have a little more hope and the children feel a little less pain.”  
Abigail thought for a second, “That’s lovely. Why do you do it?”  
Ossy looked confused and the lights above the two girls briefly flickered, “I don’t understand your question.”  
Abigail thought for a moment and then remembered something that Peter had said once, “Do you ever leave the hospital?”  
This made Ossy laugh, “Of course I do. I’ll show you, come with me.” She stood up from the wheelchair and started walking down the corridor. Abigail looked at her phone, her parents wouldn’t be missing her yet, and then followed.

They were now standing just outside the hospital, although Abigail wasn’t entirely sure where. The late afternoon sun was shining on them and there was a slight breeze although it wasn’t cold.  
“Why are we here?”  
Ossy dipped her head as some people hurried by and replied, “Fancied some air, didn’t you?”  
“Actually, I was looking for a glass of water until you distracted me.”  
Ossy smiled and produced a small, unopened bottle of water from her bag and offered it to Abigail. She eyed it suspiciously, “I can’t take that.”  
“I promise that you will still have all of your free will and blah blah blah. Is that good enough?”  
After considering it for a second Abigail took the water, she knew that if she ever told Nightingale about this later, he would probably tell her off, “Thanks.” She opened the bottle and took a sip, it was surprisingly cold considering it had been in a bag for however long.  
“Are you one of the fae?” she asked before she could stop herself.  
Ossy gave her a frowning look, “God, no. I’m not one of those pricks. You shouldn’t call them that, mind.”  
Abigail laughed, “You aren’t a fan then?”  
“Some of them are alright, I guess, they tend not to come near the hospital though so I don’t think that they like me.”  
The two girls stood in silence for a few minutes’ whist Abigail finished the water. Ossy was shifting her weight from side to side as if something was bothering her. 

Once Abigail had finished the water, Ossy walked back into the hospital and as before most the people who they pasted didn’t seem to notice them. Abigail couldn’t sense any forma so she asked, “How do you do that?”  
“Do what?”  
“Stop them from noticing you.”  
Ossy shrugged and waved her hands, “I don’t know, it just sort of happens. When I don’t want to be seen, I’m not seen.”  
Abigail started to recognise more of the corridors that they were walking down and realised where she was being taken. They stopped and wordlessly looked at each other. This was Paul’s room. Inside were her anxious parents sitting next to her ill brother, or at least her mum was probably sitting her dad might be pacing from one side of the room to the other.  
Ossy started walking away in the opposite direction that they had come from, “See you again young Issac.”  
“How do I find you again?” Abigail asked hopefully.  
Ossy smiled and cheekily bowed, “I will find you, don’t you worry.”  
Abigail walked into the room with a genuine smile, she couldn’t remember if that had ever happened before, whatever happened maybe there was a reason to hope.


End file.
